Wednesday 29 May 2013

Hong Kong Trip 2013 Day 3: Disneyland

Day 1 itinerary can be found here.
Day 2 itinerary can be found here.

After an 8 hour of sleep, Pat and I woke up with a jolly Disney mood! ٩(^‿^)۶ Minutes after we woke up, Pat exclaimed excitedly to me that she is finally going to have the opportunity to meet her all-time idol, Mr Mickey. It's Disneyland! After 'dolling' ourselves up, we took a quick breakfast at one of the 茶餐厅 near our hotel. We decided to visit Wong Tai Sin temple first since it's still too early to meet Mickey and friends.

Wong Tai Sin temple is one of the most famous temples in Hong Kong and is renowned for its sacredness and accurate lots predictions. The architecture of the temple itself is worth a visit there. Large red pillars, memorial archways and golden roofs are some of the icons of the temple. Massive crowd of people, both locals and tourists, would flock to this temple everyday. It is a magnificent place to visit even if you are not a believer.

Each prayer is restricted to offer only 9 joss sticks. I am not sure why, but I suppose there's a religious reason behind it. Or maybe it's an effort to promote environmental friendliness. |◔◡◉| We saw many devotees practicing kau cim (asking for a fortune stick) in front of the temple's main altar. Pat and I didn't join in the practice as there were too many people. As we were nearing the exit, there came a sudden heavy downpour. The rain came so abruptly that everyone hurried to seek for the nearest shelter. Pardon me about this, I actually thought that the deities were going to descend to the world. HAHAHA. I know I sound really ridiculous, but how could the heavy rain came so suddenly? Plus the wind was really very strong then! (✖╭╮✖) Me and Pat were drenched from the heavy downpour despite us having an umbrella. Therefore we decided to go back to the hotel to take a warm shower and change into some fresh clothings before we head out to Disneyland.

Entrance of the temple

The main altar

People offering their prayers


We took the train down along Tung Chung line to Sunny Bay station before transferring to the Disneyland Resort line. In our opinion, the fastest and most rewarding way to get to Disneyland is via the MTR. This is because we get to travel in the Disney themed trains that link Sunny Bay station to the Victorian-themed Disneyland Resort station. The interior decor of the train is such that:

(1) handles are shaped in the form of mickey's face
(2) windows are shaped in the form of mickey's face
(3) walls of cabins are decorated with pictures of the various Disney characters

 We could no longer control our excitement and we rushed towards the counter immediately upon arrival just to get our tickets and a map of the entire park. For your information, the park is divided into more smaller parks, namely toy story land, tomorrowlandfantasylandadventureland, mystic point, grizzly gulch and the main street.

There are many small shops on the main street selling the various Disney related products and food. Pat and I ended up spending an hour plus there because there are just too many cute stuff in each and every shop. The photos taken are quite misleading because it seem like these shops only sell Mickey and Minnie related products. But no, believe me they sell all the other Disney characters related products too. ᵔᴥᵔ

Enough with the talking! Let the photos do the talking instead!

To Disneyland Resort, lets go !
























Disney themed train that brings us to the magical world of Disneyland

Picture of Mr Mickey inside the train

On our way there, yayyyyyyy! ٩◔‿◔۶

The handles of the train are so cuteeeeeeee (。◕‿◕。)

Pat took this photo without me knowing

An army of shot cups

Mugs and other kitchen utensils

Mickey and Minnie magnet plushies (I arranged them neatly on the shelf, cute right!) (。◕‿◕。)

Me and a random Minnie plushie that I grabbed off the shelves

Mickey and Minnie key chains

Small lovely bags for the kids

The happy girl with both Minnie and Mickey plushies

Everyone has their own inner child, so don't judge ( ಠ‿ಠ)
Hot, fresh, delicious mickey face-shaped waffles *drooling*






After that, Pat and I decided to try out the various rides in the park. We played some family rides such as 'the many adventures of Winnie the Pooh', 'Cinderella Carousel', 'Autopia' and many others. One of the rides that left a rather deep impression on Pat (she told me about it) is 'its a small world'. It is more of those relaxing and enchanted rides in which you set yourself seated comfortably on the sailing boat and enjoying scenes of various dolls and characters as the boat sails through. Most of the dolls are not stationary, meaning that some would either dance along with the music or perform whatever actions that they are doing.

The enchanting boat ride

If you look at the previous photo, there's a piggie at the bottom left hand corner of the photo. It's her!
Dolls dancing along with the music that was being played

A colorfully designed hot air balloon

Another random doll

Another bunch of dolls dancing along with a different set of music

This time round, the dolls are performing some spinning-of-plates stunts
The climax of that magical day, of course, was the photo taking session with the various Disney characters! Mickey is so cheeky while Minnie is so vain with her 1001 poses. ♪ ヘ(^o^ヘ)(ノ^o^)ノ ♪
Goofy, as usual, is in its sloppy, clumsy look. Pluto looks really cute but mischievous though.The greeting session was hilarious and I believe that everyone enjoyed themselves during the session. Mickey was damn funny as he pretended to be afraid of Pat because Pat was wearing the Givenchy wolf head shirt. ٩(-̮̮̃•̃)

Us with Mickey! I don't know what is Pat doing. Trying to cling onto Mickey? (^▽゚*)
What is this cheeky doing?

Oh I see, he wants a hug (*゚ェ゚*)
Told you she's very happy!
Us with Goofy

Naughty Pluto walking around the park

Mickey and Minnie holding hands and greeting the public

Lovely couple (。◕‿◕。)
We explored the park for a full 5 hours but didn't manage to complete our expedition. In the end, we missed out the newly built mystic point and grizzly gulch. (╥﹏╥) My advice to all who are planning a trip there, please arrive at the park as early as possible because there are just too many attractions not to be missed! Park opens at 10:30am and ends off with its Disney in the Stars fireworks at 8:00pm.

At about 7:40pm, Pat and I made our way to the Sleeping Beauty Castle located in the main street and waited patiently for the fireworks display. When we reached there, it was already packed with hundreds or even thousands of park visitors! Most of them were already seated on the brick floor awaiting for the display.

Massive crowd of audience waiting for the fireworks display

Ignite the light and let it shine

Fireworks illuminating the night sky

When the fireworks blare...
Walt Disney once said this: Disneyland is the world of imagination, hopes, and dreams. In this timeless land of enchantment, the age of chivalry, magic and make-believe are reborn - and fairy tales come true. I feel that this magical land has indeed brought about laughter and unforgettable joy to everyone. Hong Kong Disneyland is the smallest Disneyland in the world. Nonetheless, it has something for everyone.

Tuesday 28 May 2013

Hong Kong Trip 2013 Day 2: Ngong Ping

Day 1 itinerary can be found here.

The initial plan for the day was to go Ngong Ping and visit the Tian Tan Buddha before heading to Disneyland. However, it turned out that we had spent too much time in Ngong Ping and hence decided to postpone the second half of the day to tomorrow. Moreover, Pat and I were quite tired after the visit to Ngong Ping and believed that we would not be able to enjoy to the fullest as a result of the fatigue.

During our planning for the trip, we stumbled upon the big Tian Tan Buddha located on Lantau Island. Frankly speaking, I was rather looking forward to visiting the place, primarily because it is the world's largest seated outdoor bronze Buddha statue and that I wanted to experience the cable car ride up to the mountain where the Buddha is situated.

We took the train and alighted at Tung Chung station. The cable car station is located next to Citygate Mall, the only outlet shopping mall in Hong Kong. One can find the outlet stores for Adidas, Puma, Calvin Klein, and many many other international brands. Those interested in purchasing cheaper-than-usual apparels could drop by this mall.

The cable car ride was a short and breathtaking 25 minutes. Upon reaching Ngong Ping, we were required to walk a distance before climbing up the flight of 268 steps in order to reach the base of the Buddha. I realised Pat and I didn't take much photos of ourselves that day, probably because we woke up very early in the morning and were not in the camwhore-ing mood yet. 

We took a cable car up to Ngong Ping

Lots of people queuing and waiting for their turn to get abroad


View from the cable car
Airplane taking off

Main entrance of the Buddha premises

Can you spot the Buddha?

Getting closer

Pat sitting and smiling on a random step

Tian Tan Buddha

Side view of the Buddha
Pronounced facial expression
Skilfully crafted details on the Buddha statue
After that, we retreated back to our hotel for a short nap before heading out to Causeway Bay for our dinner and some night shopping spree. As it was raining, I decided to leave my camera in the room and therefore there were no photos for that night. (*≗*)